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Building a loading shed

3K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  jimccool 
#1 ·
I would think that the location, the room where the reloading is done would qualify as part of loading equipment.
Any way I moved into a new, new to me, house this past August. There was no space in the house to put a loading room, so I bought a 12 by 16 prefab garden/workshop and had it installed in my back yard. This building was built by the Mennonites. They really put together a quality building for the money.
This fall and winter will be spent getting it ready. The building came with a 1/2 plywood floor, but wanting to strengthen the floor as well moisture proof it, I put down 6 mil plastic, then put 5/8th exterior plywood over that. When I'm finished with the interior but before I put up work benches etc. I'm going to pour a bucket or two of polyuerathane over the plywood to seal any cracks and give a smoother impermiable surface.
Last weekend was spent doing the wiring and preparing for the installation of a breaker box for the shed. Plenty of recepticals, four banks of two tube flourescent lites and one ten foot track lite with 8 lites to shine on each machine.
Then I stuffed insulation into every crack and space where air could get in. I stapled more of the 6 mil to the studs and roof joists to create a 3.5 inch dead air space.
I'm using that cheap melamine panaling, white, to cover the walls and ceiling. My thinking is that this stuff is cheap, easy to clean, dust should not cling to it, will reflect light all over the place and will seal the walls and ceiling well.
After I got the plastic up on the walls and ceiling I turned on a kerosene heater to see how fast it got warm. It 10 - 15 minutes I was hot.
My original idea was to put in a wood stove, but I don't see the need. There kerosene heater will produce more heat then I need.
This being Virginia, next spring I'll do some checking to see if I can install an A/C unit out there to keep down the heat, of course, and the humidity.
My plans are to build the work bench tops out of 3/4 in plywood and polyurathane them in some color, maybe primary red, just to be in keeping with this being my play room. The shelves under the work top will be some light color, again primary yellow, maybe. I've got a poly primary blue table that I use for working on rifles. I'll have my very own Romper Room.
Any suggestions or improvements would be greatly appreciated.
Jim
 
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#2 ·
One of those electric oil filled radiators should keep that space warm and will have a thermostat on it to keep the temperature constant. I never liked kerosene heaters where I was working. Too easy to get preoccupied and knock it over/fall on it. Sounds like you have the building sealed up awful tight too. I'd be worried about carbon monoxide.

Benches can never be too solid. 3/4 is nice, 2 sheets glued and screwed is better. Maybe a formica laminate for ease of cleaning?

Sounds like a nice space. I'm jealous.
 
#5 ·
A thicker benchtop will be stiffer, if it's all screwed together. My garage workbenches are plywood top and bottom, and two layers of particle board in between (just because I had it lying around and wanted to get rid of it). Very sturdy, reasonably cheap, and hardly flexes at all when I stand on it.

Also be sure to fasten everything to the floor and walls, that helps quite a bit. A free-standing bench will move around too much.
 
#6 ·
This is JimcCool

Some how the server decided I needed to go back to my old screen name.
Any way I thank you all for the advice on adding to my reloading shed.
I'll do the multiple layer bench top two layers of 3/4 ply with a layer of particle board in the middle. This should make a heck for stout bench top. Rather then using the laminate top I'll use the polyeurothane paint it's easier to apply.
I really like the idea of putting a shelf at eye level for the powder scale
I'll have 16 feet of two foot wide bench for the four Dillon presses and one Co-ax press. There will be a second co-ax press this spring for the rimless cases and the current press for the rimmed cases like the 45-70.
I found a cheap sheet metal locker to store my powder in. Should there be a fire the door will flop open easily and there are vents at the top. The primers are stored at the other end of the shop in a wooden box, vented and locked. The surplus brass is stored in old filing cabinets.
I found an eight drawer file cabinet for the 6 by 8 file cards that's just perfect for reloading dies, bullet molds and misc. press parts.
I found some square tube steel shelving standards at a used retail store equipment store. These standards are Hades for stout and will hold one heck of a lot of weight. I'll use 3/8ths lag bolts thru the steel tube into the 2*4 of the wall, every 15 or so inches and only use 12 inch shelf, what ever they are called, to hold up the 1 by 12 pine shelving boards.
 
#7 ·
Your reloading shed sounds like my kind of place. Unless you are going to install a dehumidifier, I would nix the kerosene heater. That kerosene gets turned into water when it burns. It sounds like you have sealed the building up pretty tight, so with a chimneyless kerosene heater there is no place for the combustion gases to go but to build up inside. So between the water vapor and the carbon monoxide I think I would choose the oil filled electric heater. Around here about twenty five years ago, it was all the rage to use kerosene heaters in the winter on boats. I have seen some so damp inside that it was raining down off the roof. After a couple of years of this the shipwrights did a booming business fixing dryrot at the bottom of every window on the wooden boats, mildew every where on the fiberglass ones.

Enjoy the HIDEOUT.

God Bless You and Yours as you Celibrate the Birth of Christ.

Prairie Buck
 
#8 ·
Thanks for the heat source advice

Prairie Buck
What I'm thinking about doing, after learning about kerosen heaters, is to use a couple of those quartz heaters. It so happens that my girl friend, who is inveterate yard sale lurker happed to come across these.
With Christmas behind us and the New Year soon to be gone the electricians can get in and upgrade the house service and run the line to the shed.
Thanks for the advice about the kerosene I had not even considered that aspect.
Jim
 
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